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• <br />• in the middle of the night decided to fence off <br />across the street to stop traffic. We had that <br />happen once. City crews just go out the next <br />morning and tear down the fence. I mean you don't <br />have to go to court or anything. The law is very <br />strong in favor of the public body - the <br />governmental body, on obstructions. The issue is~ <br />that La Porte, including, well, most of the <br />sections in La Porte on this side of the railroad <br />track, are very old plats, many of which were not <br />done in the modern way. You do get a subdivision <br />now with corners or blocks, and all the property <br />state monumented by the surveyors. The old 1890 <br />plats of La Porte I don't think, was ever properly <br />located on the ground. A lot of the bayshore <br />community were plated in the 20's and a lot of that <br />work was a little bit better, but not a whole lot <br />better. So before the City can go out and remove <br />obstructions, if the Council makes that policy <br />decision to do so, you need fresh, up-to-date <br />surveys based on the best information that you can <br />get. So I think the policy decision for the City <br />to be thinking about as you approach this workshop <br />would be - you've got a town; I can tell you as an <br />attorney who handles a lot of real estate activity <br />and transfers in this town - you've got a town that <br />has encroachments - house eaves, garage eaves, <br />buildings over property lines, in all the sections <br />of town of what I'd call Lomax, Spenwick, now just <br />about everything but Fairmont Park and some of <br />those newer subdivisions that have been platted the <br />last 15 or 20 years. You have a wide proliferation <br />of this type of thing. Most of it is not a large <br />obstruction; maybe six inches, a foot or something <br />like that, the surveyors will pick it up, but it <br />really doesn't hurt anything. When I say it <br />doesn't hurt anything, it doesn't hurt the City's <br />ability to furnish services or to keep a <br />thoroughfare open to traffic. The policy that this <br />City, and I think most cities that I am aware of, <br />have taken over the years is unless someone <br />complains or unless it is hurting City activities, <br />nothing is done about it by the City because it is <br />an expense both from the standpoint of getting <br />proper surveys, because it's going to have to be <br />• <br />